Based on a large component QCD derived directly from full QCD by integrating over the small components of quark fields with vertical bar p vertical bar < E + m(Q), an alternative quantization procedure is adopted to establish a basic theoretical framework of heavy quark effective field theory (HQEFT) in the sense of effective quantum field theory. The procedure concerns quantum generators of Poincare group, Hilbert and Fock space, anticommutations and velocity superselection rule, propagator and Feynman rules, finite mass corrections, trivialization of gluon couplings and renormalization of Wilson loop. The Lorentz invariance and discrete symmetries in HQEFT are explicitly illustrated. Some new symmetries in the infinite mass limit are discussed. Weak transition matrix elements and masses of hadrons in HQEFT are well defined to display a manifest spin-flavor symmetry and 1/m(Q) corrections. A simple trace formulation approach is explicitly demonstrated by using LSZ reduction formula in HQEFT, and shown to be very useful for parametrizing the transition form factors via 1/m(Q) expansion. As the heavy quark and antiquark fields in HQEFT are treated on the same footing in a fully symmetric way, the quark-antiquark coupling terms naturally appear and play important roles for simplifying the structure of transition matrix elements, and for understanding the introduction of "dressed heavy quark"-hadron duality. In the case that the "longitudinal" and "transverse" residual momenta of heavy quark are at the same order of power counting, HQEFT provides a consistent approach for systematically analyzing heavy quark expansion in terms of 1/m(Q). Some interesting features in applications of HQEFT to heavy hadron systems are briefly outlined.